Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 295 pages of information about Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil,.

Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 295 pages of information about Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil,.

By representing to General San Martin that this course would cause great dissatisfaction amongst the Chileno officers and men, who expected to be landed and led at once against Lima, for the immediate conquest of which they were amply sufficient, he consented to give up his plan of proceeding to Truxillo, but firmly refused to disembark his men in the vicinity of Lima; for what reason I could not then divine.  My own plan was to land the force at Chilca, the nearest point to Callao, and forthwith to obtain possession of the capital; an object by no means difficult of execution, and certain of success.

Finding all argument unavailing, we sailed for Pisco, where the expedition arrived on the 7th of September, and on the 8th, to my great chagrin, the troops were disembarked, and for fifty days remained in total inaction! with the exception of despatching Colonel Arenales into the interior with a detachment, which, after defeating a body of Spaniards, took up a position to the eastward of Lima.

Even on arriving at Pisco, General San Martin declined to enter the town, though the Spanish forces consisted of less than three hundred men.  Landing the troops under Major-General Las Heras, he went down the coast in the schooner Montezuma the inhabitants meanwhile retiring into the interior, taking with them their cattle, slaves, and even the furniture of their houses.  This excess of caution excited great discontent in the army and the squadron, as contrasting strangely with the previous capture of the place, in the preceding year, by Lieut.-Colonel Charles and Major Miller, with their handful of men.

On the return of General San Martin, he professed to be greatly chagrined at the departure of the inhabitants, and the consequent loss of supplies.  Instead of attributing this to his own tardy movements, he declared his disbelief in the accounts he had received from Peru as to the friendly disposition of the inhabitants, even throwing out doubts as to the success of the expedition in consequence.  It was of the first importance to have taken the place immediately, and to have conciliated the inhabitants, as the ships were scantily provisioned, and all but destitute of other necessary supplies.  A detailed account, however, of the capture of the place was transmitted to Santiago, where it was duly recorded in the official organ as the first feat of the great expedition.

During these fifty days the squadron was also necessarily kept in inaction, having achieved nothing beyond the capture of a few merchantmen along the coast, and a fruitless chase of two Spanish frigates, the Prueba and Venganza, which I did not follow up, as involving risk to the transports during my absence.

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Narrative of Services in the Liberation of Chili, Peru and Brazil, from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.